Dear Madam President,

Congratulations! I am a freshman in high school, and I am very interested in what you are able to do for this country. It’s a good thing you became president, so you can look more into the topic Domestic Violence.

It happens a lot. Most often, domestic violence is by men towards women. According to NACDV.org, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) is website where the voice of victims and survivors of domestic violence are shared, says that 1 out of 4 men and 1 out of 3 women have been victims of it. People claim jealousy problems, alcohol, being insecure are reasons, why domestic violence happens. It's very effective and unnecessary. It can not only hurt the victim, but the victims’ family. There’s 10 million children who have experienced domestic violence at home. According to Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable, a community based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting safe and healthy relationships, the children who have experienced domestic violence at home, only know one way to resolve problem and that’s by violence. There is also a chance where they grow up to be in an intimate relationship, where there's violence just like their parents.

He gets mad as if mommy did something wrong, but he needs to understand it’s not her fault. Mommy is always telling me "never let a man control you". I tell her, "You do the same because it affects me the same exact way". Domestic Violence is not a game.

My cousin’s dad comes home drunk at night and hits her mom. Even though her mom does nothing wrong, but listen to him, and sets food on the table he always feels the need to hit her. He doesn’t ever apologize because he doesn’t see anything wrong with his actions. My cousin, Josephine is fed up and doesn't know why her mom stays with her dad. She told me that sometimes she thinks it's her fault and cries herself to sleep when she hears them arguing. Josephine says that her mom only stays because she’s afraid that she’ll lose her child. She has nowhere else to go. She fears she'll suffers from lack of resources, and always question herself, Will I be able to support my kids and myself?

Basically what she was trying to tell me, domestic violence damages peoples’ life, whether it’s the victim or not. One of the reasons I mentioned was Alcohol. It can make a person do things they don’t mean to. Although, you can't change anyone who doesn't see the wrong in their actions, that's why my cousin is tired of it and wants to go somewhere else. It doesn’t matter if they’re the “man of the house”, or "she's my wife, I can do whatever", women deserve their respect, and no one deserves to be in a relationship where there's domestic violence. Violence is never the answer, especially not around a kid.

And this is why domestic violence should be stopped.

Respectfully,

 Naomi